


All Day and All of the Night

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Space Cases (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-20
Updated: 2008-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 06:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1637282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Radu is in a coma after a terrible accident, and his friends do their best to bring him back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All Day and All of the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Written for fleshlycherry

 

 

Rosie kept a bunch of Nehoaigan flowers hanging from the ceiling in her room.  They smelled like honeysuckle and sugar, or mint and ice, or best of all hot lava and Mercurian sundrops depending on the temperature of the room.  Two great bunches of red and orange flowers extended down low enough that she could brush her fingers against them if she reached up to touch the velvety petals.

They bruised easily, giving off a sickly orange smell, so she didn't do it often.  But once in a while she couldn't help herself--when she closed her eyes and touched them she could almost believe it was the fur of the pet haizhai she'd had until she left Mercury for Staracademy. 

They had been in deep space for almost seven Terran Years, and it would be another two and a half before they made it to the furthest outskirts of the Space Dogs' patrol.  Sometimes the longing for home hit her hard and painful, but most of the time she barely thought of Mercury, or her family.  It always made her start, guiltily, when she realized it had been months since she'd thought of her mother's laugh or her father's cooking.  Her parents--practical, cheerful, and loving Mercurian doctors--would have understood, but she couldn't help feeling guilty.

Rosie yawned and settled closer into her blankets.  The room was still dark in the Christa's artificial nighttime.  Thelma would be by in another half hour or so to turn the lights on.  Rosie felt a tug at her wrist and moved the blankets aside so that Julietta could climb in with her.

"Rosie!" she whispered.

"Yes?"

"Today is my birthday!"

Rosie squeezed her.  "Happy Birthday Julietta!"

"Don't call me that, my name is T-Rex."

"Sorry, T-Rex.  How old are you today?"

Julietta-T-Rex held up four fingers.  "You're warm, Rosie," she said, and snuggled closer.  Rosie, thinking about a long-ago birthday, didn't reply.  It wasn't like her to feel melancholy, and she tried to shake it off, getting up and helping Julietta get dressed, then taking her down to the mess room.  Bova was there already, of course, eating a sandwich the size of his head.  "Hey, Bova," she said.

"Hey, Rosie.  Hey, T-Rex."

"Bova!" Julietta cried, jumping into his lap.

"That's all right," he said, and moved her over, keeping one hand on his sandwich.

"I'm going down to the medlab," she said, and Bova nodded glumly.  "Can you keep an eye on Julietta--"

"T-Rex!"

"until Ms. Davenport comes to get her?"

"I guess."

"Thanks, Bova."

"Hey, aren't you even going to eat breakfast?" he called after her, as she sailed through the jump tube.  Her feet hit the floor outside of the doors to the medlab, and she hesitated a moment before going through.  Harlan was sitting by the bed on the right, his hands folded under his chin.  

"Did you get any sleep?" she asked, glancing at the other bed.  

"Sure," he said.  His voice sounded raw and raspy, and she reached out a hand to rest on his shoulder, wishing she'd thought to bring him a drink.

"Any change?"

"Nope."

"Why don't you go and have some breakfast before you check in with Goddard?  I'll stay with him."

Harlan sighed, and rose reluctantly, but he didn't argue.  His eyes never left the bed.  "See you later, buddy," he said, squeezing one of Radu's unresponsive hands.  He walked over to the door, and Rosie began checking the logs from the previous night.  She glanced up after a minute; Harlan still hadn't left.  

"Harlan?"

"Rosie, do you think...will he ever wake up?"

It was a question she dreaded.  Harlan hadn't asked it yet, probably because he hadn't wanted to hear the answer, but she told him what she'd told the others.  "I don't know, Harlan.  I just don't know enough about Andromedan biology."

He nodded, and turned to the door.  

"Harlan, wait a minute.  I'm sorry.  I know it's worse for you.  He's your best friend..."

Harlan snorted and Rosie continued, "I'm here, you know, if you want to talk."

"Thanks," he said shortly, and left.

There was nothing unusual in the night logs, and when Rosie checked Radu's vitals everything was exactly the same as it always was.  She was frustrated and glowing when Bova walked in, reading the scant information the ship's database had about Andromedans for the hundredth time.

"Bova, we're surrounded by technology, but none of it can help him."

Bova handed her a plate of food and sat down next to her.  "You could put him back in stasis?"

"But there's nothing wrong with him!  Physically, he's in perfect health.  He just won't wake up."

"Too bad Suzee's not here," he said, eating a piece of fruit off her plate.  "She could go inside his head and see if anybody's home."

"Yeah," Rosie said with a sigh.  "Too bad."

"How long's it been?"

"I don't know.  Two years or so."

"No," Bova said patiently.  "Not since Suzee left.  Since Radu's been in a coma."

"Oh--35 days."

"Maybe it's just some Andromedan thing.  Like they shut down after they've been seriously injured."

"Yeah, but if it is, how do we get him started up again?"

Bova shrugged eloquently, finishing the last cookie on Rosie's plate.

"Bova did he say anything?  When you were bringing him on board."

For the first time Bova dropped his indifferent demeanor and looked troubled.  "No," he said slowly.  It wasn't something he liked to think about.  Radu bleeding to death in Harlan's arms, Harlan screaming at him to cauterize the wound.  Radu had already been still and unconscious, possibly dead, and Bova had been afraid of killing him if he wasn't entirely.  He'd shot out the electric pulse anyway, as careful and cautious as anything he'd ever done in his life.  He still wasn't entirely sure how they'd gotten back on board the ship.

Rosie watched him sympathetically, as if she knew what he was thinking.  But she did, he reflected.  She had met them as soon as they were all on board, and she had seen all three of them covered in blood.

"Bova and Rosie," Harlan's voice sounded over the intercom.  "Can you get up to the bridge, please?"

Goddard and Harlan were on the bridge, looking tense, and Bova and Rosie went to their stations automatically.  "What's going on?" Bova asked.  "There," Goddard said.  There was a ship on the viewscreen, white and luminous, shaped like a long flattened egg.

"Are they friendly?"

"They want to open a communication link," Rosie said.  

Goddard nodded.  "Go ahead."

A woman's face came on the screen, and it took them a moment to realize what they were looking at.  "She's Andromedan," Harlan said in a whisper.

"Yes," the woman agreed, and Harlan winced visibly.  "Good day.  I am Captain Arda of the Enoa.  You have one of our people on board your ship."

"How did you know that?" Goddard asked suspiciously.

"We sensed his presence.  He is in distress.  You are the Captain?  You must return him to us."

"My name is Commander Goddard--" Goddard said, at the same time that Harlan said, "Hey, you can't just--"

"Mr. Band," Goddard said, glaring him into silence, and Harlan frowned and glared at the controls.  "With all due respect, Captain Arda, Mr. Radu is a member of our crew and he has been for years.  We're not just going to hand him over to you."

"A member of your crew?" Captain Arda repeated with mild skepticism.  "Perhaps you mean a slave?"

"No, ma'am," Goddard said with a steely look.  "He was a student at Staracademy seven years ago along with most of the crew when we ended up on this ship.  It's a long story," he said, when she raised her eyebrows at him.  

"I see," she said.  "Then I wonder if you would mind if we came aboard?  To speak to him?"

"All right," Goddard said.  "Commander," Harlan hissed.  Goddard ignored him, and continued, "But only two of you.  No weapons.  Bring a doctor, if you've got one."

She nodded, briskly, and her face flashed off the screen, replaced with a view of the ship in real time.  Harlan was still scowling, and Goddard held up a hand to forestall any argument.  "They might be able to help him, Harlan.  We need to take the chance.  Besides," he said glancing at the monitor, "they look like they might be able to outgun us.  We shouldn't antagonize them unnecessarily."

Bova moved to stand closer to Rosie.  "What do you think?" he asked her quietly.

"I think, what is a ship full of Andromedans doing way out here?"

"Coming to get Radu, apparently."

A moment later Captain Arda beamed in, along with another Andromedan.  In person she was almost as tall as Commander Goddard, slim, with her long black hair loose over her shoulders, they way Radu wore it.  Her companion was slightly shorter and huskier and his brown hair was bound tightly in a braid.  He carried a large silvery case with him.  Arda nodded to the Commander.  "This is Dr. Marik," she said.  

"This is Mr. Band, Mr. Bova, Dr. Ianni."  Rosie started and Goddard smiled at her.  "Thelma," he said.  She appeared at his elbow at once, and he jumped.  "Yes, Commander?"

"Check them for weapons, would you?"  Then to the Andromedans, in a slightly dangerous voice, he said, "You don't mind?"

"Not at all," Arda said, her voice equally flat.  

"They appear to be free of weapons," Thelma said after some consideration, examining their arms and heads and the soles of their feet.  Arda shook her head bemusedly.  "Are you satisfied?"

"I think so.  Doctor, may we see the patient?"  It took Rosie a moment to realize he was talking to her.

In the medlab Arda and Marik went instantly to Radu and they each took one of his hands.  Too quietly for the others to hear, they began to confer.  Harlan crossed his arms over his chest irritably.  Rosie understood how he felt.  She had explained the situation to Dr. Marik before they'd arrived, and he'd barely responded to her.  She hoped the Andromedans were shy, and not simply stuck up.

Arda let go of Radu's hand, and Marik began examining him, shining a small light into his eyes and checking his pulse.  "Why are his hands uncovered?" Arda asked.  She sounded disapproving.  Rosie shrugged.  "He goes without gloves most of the time."  He had worn them for the first few years they had been on the Christa, but she thought he had taken them off once he was able to control his strength more precisely.  

Arda looked back at Marik, and she asked him a question in Andromedan.

"In Galactic, if you don't mind," Commander Goddard said.  They looked over at him, and he smiled thinly.  "I was merely asking the doctor his diagnosis," Arda said in a neutral tone.

"I'm sure that's something we'd all like to hear."

Suddenly Ms. Davenport's voice came over the loudspeaker and the Andromedans flinched.  "Seth?  Rosie?  Bova?  Where are you all?  It's nearly time for Julietta's party!"  A faint voice could be heard in the background, saying, "T-Rex!"

"Not now, T.J.," Goddard said, turning off the intercom.  He looked at Marik.  "Well?"

"He is in a coma--"

"Tell us something we don't know," Harlan muttered.

"brought on by the recent trauma you described."

"Can you bring him out of it?"  Rosie asked eagerly.

Marik nodded slowly.  "I believe so," he said, "but we will need to bring him on board the Enoa."

"No way," Harlan said, sharply.  "Whatever you need to do, you can do it here."

"I am afraid we cannot."

"You are welcome to come with us," Arda said smoothly.  "Once Radu is awake he can tell us where he would like to be."

You sound like you already know the answer, Rosie thought.  

"All right," Goddard said, nodding.  "But I want one of your people here so that we know you aren't going to double-cross us."

"Andromedans do not double-cross."

"Understood.  But my wife and daughter are on this ship.  And I'm responsible for the safety of all of the crew."

There was a long pause, then Arda nodded.  "Very well," she said grudgingly.  "I will send over my First Lieutenant."

Arda had Lieutenant Vera beamed over, and then the Christa was brought out of beam-range.  Rosie and Harlan went across with the Andromedans in one of the Starlings.  It was a tight fit, and Arda looked impatient, but she did not complain.  She had protested initially, but Goddard had insisted they use the Starling, and that the Christa move out of beam range so that they would have room to maneuver in case anything happened.  Commander Goddard had wanted to come with them, but they had argued that it would be better for him to be on the ship in case something  did happen.  Eventually, he'd agreed.  It left Bova alone as the sole person who could operate the ship but it was a risk they had to take.  No one had argued Harlan or Rosie's right to go, but Bova had bid her a dejected goodbye, apart from the others.

"Oh, Bova, we'll be fine," she said, equal parts amused and touched by his dire warning.

"Let's hope so.  Otherwise I'm going to be stuck on this ship forever, with no one but the Goddards and Thelma for company."

"Would that be so terrible?" she asked, her eyes twinkling.

"I'd launch myself out of the airlock before the end of the first week."

"Bova, at least look for a hospitable planet you could plunk yourself down on."

"Or plunk them down on," he said darkly.  Then he hugged her.  Surprised, she returned the hug, but as soon as she did he let her go, muttering to himself as he walked away.

Rosie, sitting beside Harlan, chuckled a little.  "What's so funny?" he said sharply.  She shook her head.  "I'll tell you later."  Not about Bova, of course, but she had suddenly remembered a time when Harlan had tried to sell Radu to get them home, many years ago, and how different he was now.  But mentioning the fact that Harlan had once tried to sell Radu into slavery, with Arda and Marik present, didn't seem like the best idea.

"How many Andromedans are on your ship?" Rosie asked.  

"Two-hundred-and-forty-seven."

"Wow," Rosie marvelled.  Radu was the only Andromedan she had ever seen.  As a race they were notoriously reticent.

"How did you know he was here, anyway?" Harlan asked.  

"We sensed his presence."

"Remember, like with the Gurkel?" Rosie said.

"Oh.  Yeah.  But how could you sense him from so far away?  Radu could only feel that thing when he was right on top of it."

"When many of us are together, we can feel things from great distances.  And Radu was in grave danger.  He has been away from his people for a long time."

Rosie wondered if those were two seperate statements, or one.  Beside her she could feel Harlan stiffen.  She patted his shoulder, and he didn't say anything for the rest of the flight over to the Enoa.

There was a flurry of activity once they were in the loading bay; Andromedans surrounded them, gently transferring Radu to a gravi-stretcher, and murmuring to each other.  Harlan looked around for Arda and Marik, but they had both disappeared.  "Hey!" he said sharply, as two Andromedans started to guide the stretcher away.  "That's our friend."

"This way, please," a young, polite voice said.  It was an Andromedan girl, a few years younger than themselves.  She watched them with open curiosity.  "I will take you to him."  

"He's right there!" Harlan protested.  

"They must take him away now.  I will take you to where he is going."

"Come on, Harlan," Rosie said gently. 

"How can we trust them?"

"They won't hurt him," she said anxiously, looking around, but no one seemed to be paying attention.

The two girls led him away, still grumbling.  Anaa--that was the girl's name--guided them through hallways and up crystal clear tube-shaped elevators.  The whole ship was the same clean, white, muted color inside as it was outside.  All around them people--Andromedans--were busily occupied.  A few glanced at them curiously, but most didn't seem to notice them.  They all wore layers, covered from foot to neck, but apart from a few people in uniforms like Arda's they were dressed in different colors and styles.

Rosie could appreciate all the different colors.  The Andromedans seemed like a cheerful, happy people.  Some of the things she saw reminded her of Catalina's holiday wear, but most were more practical.  She saw a few people who looked like couples, which made her curious.  She knew Andromedans raised their children communally, but did that mean...?  Well, she really had no idea.  She was beginning to realize how little Radu had ever said about his own culture.

At last they reached their destination, an enormous round room paneled in soft smooth wood, different from anything else they'd seen in the ship so far.  There was no furniture in it, nothing at all.  The only noticeable thing was the ceiling, which was tiled in the same wood, each panel a curved, waved rectangle that overlapped the next.  A few Andromedans were there already, sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed, as if in meditation.   Rosie nudged Harlan and pointed to the ceiling.  "Acoustics, do you think?" she whispered, practically in his ear.  She knew the Andromedans could probably all hear her anyway, but that was no reason to be louder than she had to be.

"I guess," Harlan whispered back.  He was looking around in confusion.  Anaa guided them to seats near the center, then sat down next to Rosie.

"What do we do here?" Rosie asked her.

"We wait."

They waited a long time.  Harlan, unused to sitting still for so long, kept fidgeting, and Rosie was worried someone was going to turn to scold them, but no one did.  Andromedans were trickling in and silently taking seats to form a series of large, concentric circles with a wide open area in the middle.  They were all adults--Anaa was the youngest one there--and they all closed their eyes as soon as they sat down.  The room was unnaturally quiet considering the number of people in it--there were no coughs, or shuffling, or murmured conversation the way there had been in every other audience Rosie had ever been part of.  But then she wondered if you were an Andromedan, if you would be able to hear all those things.  When Radu talked to them, did he feel like he was shouting?

Harlan sighed beside her and stretched his legs out.  "Harlan," she hissed at him, and tapped him firmly.  He pulled them back in.  "What are we even doing here?" he asked her, but it seemed to her that his heart wasn't in it.  Harlan Band seemed genuinely subdued.  She shook her head in amazement.  

"What?"

"Nothing."

The room was filling up now, and there was hardly any empty floor space left.  The lights began to dim, and then they went out completely.  Harlan went stiff beside her, and she put a hand on his arm, hoping he wouldn't do anything rash.  The lights went back on, not to full brigtness but enough for them to see that Radu was lying in the middle of the circle, his arms folded on his chest.  Beside her, Harlan gasped and struggled to get up, and Rosie kept him firmly in his seat.  

"Rosie," he hissed.

"Shhh!" she hissed right back.  Something was starting.  Harlan relaxed when he heard it to.  To their left there was a soft, high note, slowly growing in volume.  It was then that Rosie noticed there was another consideration in the organization of the room.  In addition to the circles it was divided into four sections; younger women, younger men, older women, older men.  Harlan and Rosie were seated right on the borders of each of the groups of young people.  It was the younger women who had started to sing.  More and more of them were joining in, until it seemed like they were all united together, in one beautiful, enormous sound.

Suddenly, Rosie thought to herself, Well, why not?  She raised her voice to join theirs.  She didn't know the words, but she imitated the sounds as best she could.  Behind her and beside her she felt gentle hands reaching out to touch her briefly, as if in approval, and then pull back.  Back on Mercury it had been like this, on the Sun Days. She and her family would go to Worship and sing thanks to the Sun with their neighbors.  She had forgotten how good singing felt, how it didn't matter if you were the best or not as long as you joined in.  Rosie could feel the music vibrate though the floor, even through her body.

She heard other voices.  She was pretty sure she had the hang of the song, now.  It was several verses and a chorus repeated over again, and she was learning it just through repetition.  The older women, sitting alongside the younger women, were all singing their heartso out.  At the end of the final chorus before the first verse was repeated, Rosie felt her heart swell with joy, and she squeezed Anaa's hand next to her.  Anaa squeezed back. 

The older men started to sing, and then the younger, until the whole room swelled with it.  They got to the end of the chorus and then back to the beginning again, and Rosie could feel something on the verge of happening, but what?  Then she realized; Harlan wasn't singing.  He was the only one, in that room full of hundreds of people, sitting mute, and whatever was happening couldn't happen without him.  She thought about nudging him, or even hitting him but she knew instinctually that she couldn't, so she just kept singing the song she now knew by heart.  

In front of her--it was hard to tell with the lights so dim--she thought something moved.  She inhaled deeply and then sang even more lustily than before.  It's for Radu, she thought, and she hoped Harlan would realize and join in.  

Even in that cacophony she heard him take a breath beside her, and then was easily able to distinguish his voice from all the Andromedan ones.  They sang though it once, all together, and as the sound of the last voice died out, one took it up.

It was Radu's.

***

By the time the lights were back on most of the Andromedans had left.  Only Anaa and Arda remained.  Arda approached Radu, and spoke seriously to him for a few minutes in Andromedan.  He nodded a great deal, replied hesitantly, and kept glancing over at Rosie and Harlan.  

When they had been sitting in the dark after the song had ended, Harlan had been crying silently--or so he thought--and an anonymous Andromedan had given him a handkerchief.  He fiddled with it now, folding the edges down and wringing it through his hands.  Arda finally seemed satisfied.  She nodded to Anaa, and the two of them left the room.

The three of them put their arms around each other's necks, immediately.  "Thank you," Radu said quietly, and Rosie, with her hand on Radu's back, could feel Harlan squeeze Radu's neck in response.

They had been through so much together, for the better part of a decade.  Rosie was closer to all of them--Bova, Harlan, Radu, Commander Goddard and Ms. Davenport and Julietta, Thelma and even Suzee and Catalina (though they were in another dimension, and the likelihood of their return to this one was dubious), than she'd ever been with anyone in her life.  Or ever would be.

It was a strange thought, and it made her lightheaded.  

Mercurians were used to having strong relationships and friendships, but how could she ever explain what she felt for everyone on the Christa to the people back home?  She was going to have to, though, she reflected sadly.  Sooner than any of them would like to think.  

The close quarters, isolation, and constant danger had bonded them closer than anything else could have, and they were closer than friends, closer than family.  What would happen if they all returned home and that family split up, she wondered.  She didn't want to think about it.

They left the room together, arm in arm.  "Rosie?" Radu asked her quietly.  Anaa was waiting outside, to take them back to the Starling.  "Just--thinking," she said.

"About?"

"My family.  Families.  In general."

"That's what that song is about."

"It is?"

"Yes.  How we're all--one family, but sometimes--oh, it's complicated.  I'll have to think about it, and get back to you."

She laughed.  "Okay.  Take all the time you want," she said, and squeezed his hand.

She let Radu take her seat on the way back in the Starling, and as soon as they were alone Harlan peppered him with questions.  What did Captain Arda say to you?  What in Grozit was up with that song?  What were Andromedans doing this far out?

On and on.  Radu answered them as best as he could, but eventually Rosie chided Harlan, "He just woke up!  Ease up on him a little."

"Yes, doctor," Harlan said with a smirk.

Rosie blushed.  "I still don't know why the Commander called me that."

"Because it's what you are," Radu said with a smile.

"You have to go to school to be a doctor," Rosie protested.  "I'll have a lot of work ahead of me once we get back.  If we ever get back."

****

Bova was on the bridge, gloomily poking at the controls when they got back, but he brightened up as soon as they all appeared from the jump tubes.  

"Hey!" he said in the most delighted voice Rosie had ever heard from him.  "You're all right!"  He and Radu clasped hands and pounded each other on the back, while Rosie looked on fondly.  "This is the happiest I've ever seen you, Bova!" 

"Oh, don't worry, it won't last.  Pretty soon we're going to have to go down to T-Rex's birthday party."

"T-Rex?" Radu asked.  

"You'll find out soon enough," Bova said dourly.  "Let's at least get the ship back on course before we submit to soul-crushing despair--"

"Bova, come on.  Birthday.  Cake."

"If we live long enough to eat it."

"Don't you think you're being a little over dramatic?"

"Don't you remember what happened last year?"

"Oh," she said.

"Yeah, oh.  It took me six months to get full feeling back in my antenna," he said.  "Now let's get going."

"Wait a minute," Harlan said.  He looked at Radu.  "Radu, you haven't seen any of your people in years.  Don't you want to stay, and see them for a little bit?"

Radu smiled.  "I don't know any of those people," he said.  "I've never met any of them.  My family is here."

****

After T-Rex crashed in her mother's arms and they got the last of the frosting out of the control panels and Thelma stopped short-circuiting and she took Bova back to the medlab to try to get him to stop hiccuping, Rosie went back to her room to relax for a little while.  Her family--her families--were still strongly in her mind, and she couldn't resist the desire to reach up and squeeze one of the petals between her two fingers.  The pungent orange smell filled the room, but her mind was far away and she didn't notice.

Her door pinged.  Then it pinged again.  "Oh--come in!" she said.

Radu entered, smiling shyly.  "I thought you might want to see this," he said, handing her a compupad.  "It's a rough translation, but, uh, I think it gets the point across."  She looked down and read,

Child, wander, you may wonder, you may roam in Spring and Summer, Return and find your place again It must end where it began

Child, lover, father, mother, aunt and uncle, sister, brother, all are one from creche to grave, till the stars and sun do fade,

If in the Heart you cannot find the sound of joy, you may remind-- Look in the stars, and see what ancestors have left for thee

Child, lover, father, mother, aunt and uncle, sister, brother, all are one from creche to grave, till the stars and sun do fade,

In the heavens you must trust to find your place here beside us Never fear and never fall, In our Heart, love one and all.

Child, lover, father, mother, aunt and uncle, sister, brother, all are one from creche to grave, till the stars and sun do fade.

"Oh, Radu, it's beautiful," she said.  "Does Heart mean something special?"

"It means--oh, a lot of things.  There isn't really a good translation.  It means we're all one, sort of, and we all love each other.  But more than that...even though we're all different beings we share one spirit."

"I understand," she said, dabbing at her eye with a corner of her sleeve.  "Thank you, for translating it for me.  For sharing it with me."

"I'm glad you like it," he said, and got up.  She reached out a hand, and he took it.  "I'm so glad you're better.  You're like a brother to me, Radu."

He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek.  "You're my sister," he said, and left.  She smiled to herself.  Radu had been typically close-mouthed about what exactly that whole ceremony had meant, and why the Andromedans were there in the first place.  He seemed older, somehow, and more confident, than he had been even a month ago.  

She wondered, as she drifted off to sleep, whether the Andromedan sense of loyalty and community, of Heart extended to undertaking a deep space voyage to bring one of their people home, to bring him to adulthood, letting him go if he had found another family, and not holding it against him.  She was almost asleep when another ping came at the door.  "Come in," she said, around a yawn.  She sat up.  It was Bova.

He looked deeply embarassed.  "Can I sleep here?" he asked.  She nodded to the four empty bunks.  "Take your pick."

"Radu and Harlan kicked me out," he said, spreading his blanket out.

"Why?"

"They said I snored too loud."

"Well, I guess they hadn't slept there in a month.  Maybe they forgot how loud you were."  Bova grunted and Rosie lay back, wondering how she was going to sleep tonight.

"Where's T-Rex?"

"With her parents," Rosie said, yawning again.

"Why do you let her sleep here at all?"

"It can get kind of lonely without Catalina and Suzee," she said.

He had no response to this.  Instead he said, "What's that smell?"

She reached out a hand in the dark, and he took it.  Bova's skin felt dry and cool to the touch, like friendship and family and something else altogether.

"Oranges," she said with a smile, and went to sleep. 

 


End file.
